The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

1/10/2014

Hampstead Counselling Service

one of the charities supported by the parish

Starting counselling and/or psychotherapy is often a difficult and brave step towards taking control of your life, enabling you to explore issues that may have become a problem. Counselling helps you to consider the ways that you might deal with matters that are troubling and/or worrying. It is not about being given advice or having your problem solved for you. Counselling can offer a safe space, where you can share and explore how you are thinking and feeling. A counselling experience should lead to a better ability to deal with issues, even if they cannot always be fully resolved.   
                   
Our Objects
To conduct and maintain a centre without a profit where any person in need can obtain counsel, comfort and help in personal problems of all kinds.

Our Aims
Our purpose is to restore, promote and preserve good mental health among the inhabitants of North West London by the provision of counselling services by qualified counsellors. We do this regardless of clients’ financial circumstances, ethnic background or status, and whether they are of any faith or none.

We seek to help adults who are experiencing a variety of difficulties such as:
Depression

Stress
Relationship and family problems
Bereavement, both in the distant past and recently
Work related issues
Post traumatic stress
Anxiety

Our objective in all our casework is:
to enable people to understand and resolve their issues
to help people find their own solutions
to help people come to terms with their situation, and
to support them as they begin to make the changes that they want in their lives.

Accordingly, we aim to help our clients:
become emotionally secure and balanced
restore their self esteem and confidence
plan positively for the future.

Our Achievements
As we reflect on 25 years of activity, a constant over the years has been the genuine appreciation from our clients for the guidance and support to address their issues that our counsellors provide. Our clients come from all walks of life and many may appear to be resilient. However, they find it difficult to cope with an accumulation of different problems and find it impractical to obtain the required objective guidance and support from their family. Our counsellors assist people to work their way through their concerns and to develop a way of handling these on an ongoing basis that is right for them. Our feedback from clients constantly emphasises the contributions that our counsellors make to major improvements in the ability to cope and move forward positively. The outcomes are truly life-enhancing.

During the year we completed the review of the content and layout of our website and responded to the feedback we received. The review of the effectiveness of our
mailings to GPs/healthcare professionals is ongoing and we are continually exploring
how best we can communicate with those who would benefit from accessing our
services. The team of counsellors stood at eight at the year-end but rose to nine shortly thereafter.

Our Plans
Our plans for the next year include:
strengthening our team of counsellors to an operating “norm” of 10
raising awareness of HCS in the local community.

(Taken from their website hampsteadcounsellingservice.co.uk )

Hampstead Counselling Service
Company Number 2688637
Charity Number 1010794